2004-05-28

Back in Iraq 3.0

--- Christopher Allbritton ist seit einer guten Woche wieder im Irak und berichtet momentan als Reporter für seine Blog-Leser aus Bagdad. Dass es dort nicht ungefährlich ist, hat er soeben durch das Hochgehen einer Autobombe in nächster Nähe erfahren: The blast came at 8:20 a.m. Tuesday morning. A car bomb exploded about 100m from my hotel. The sound of the explosion and the concussion wave buckled and rattled the windows of the Internet cafe where I was doing some last minute email before S., my driver, was to pick me up at 8:30. The bomb was at the front door of the al-Karma hotel next door to mine, and shattered the guardhouse that S. and I drive through several times a day. But this morning, S., who is usually a few minutes early, and his sleek, black BMW were nowhere to be found. Four people were injured and one boy, Ali Abbas, an 11-year-old kid who worked at the Fils Take Away restaurant selling cigarettes and chattering with anyone who would listen, died. He had brought me water on my first night in Baghdad. Bilder von der Szenerie gibts natürlich auch in den Blog. Allbritton war im vergangenen Jahr in der Blogosphäre und darüber hinaus bekannt geworden, weil er als erster westlicher Blogger finanziert von Spenden seiner Leser über die Hochzeit des Irak-Kriegs von vor Ort berichtete. 11.000 US-Dollar hat er auch dieses Mal wieder von seinen "Fans" erhalten. Allein mit dem erbloggten Geld will der Abenteurer dieses Mal allerdings nicht auskommen: I’m also going to be freelancing for some decent-sized publications, including Popular Mechanics, so I may have to give them the priority instead of the blog. One just can’t live forever overseas in a war zone on blog donations. I would if I could. But I will be updating this blog with scenes of daily life from Iraq as well as stories and features that don’t sell. Maybe you guys will be able to tell me the reason. When an article comes out, I’ll tell you all about it.